D&D 5E A half-orc's sacrifice

[Not a Hobbit]

First of all, spoilers for my game, so if any of my players are reading, stop it!




















Dear ENworlders:

My players are about to come to the end of the first story arc, wherein it is possible that Princess Plot Point (PPP) will be sacrificed in order to bring back a long dead god. Fortunately, after the fight a devil will tell the party that it is not yet time for the rebirth anyway, so they will not have to fight mega-Tiamat at 3rd level. Alas, PPP may still be just as dead. There is a cleric who can cast spare the dying, but with fighting death dogs and bearded devils, she may not get there in time.

One of the characters is a Half-Orc Barbarian, who has the Ancestors subclass. I'm thinking that his spirit guide could tell him in a roundabout way that if he sacrifices a part of himself, then PPP can be brought back. But I'm not sure what would be a good sacrifice, without going overboard. I would like it to be something fairly significant. But he is still only level 3, and I'd hate to gimp him too much for the next 17 levels or whatever. And then there is the horrible thought that if the demand is too great, he might not do it at all.

My first thought was that he gives up his Relentless Endurance, but that seems too much (although it would make such sense story wise). Another thought I had was giving up one level of hit dice, so that although he has all of the features of a barbarian of Level x, his HP and healing hit dice will always be one level lower. I'm not sure how I think about that.

So any other suggestions would be appreciated. Or do you think I should not bother with this, and just let Princess Plot Point die and be dead? I'd have to change a storyline, but it wouldn't be impossible. I do like the idea of the party having to drag this 12 year old princess along wherever they go to keep her safe.

Thanks for listening and thanks in advance for suggestions.

--Scott

 

[rgoodbb]

Something that will unknowingly benefit that character in the future. The loss of an eye and perception at disadvantage but later the chance to sport the eye of Vecna? Maybe not that example but in a similar vain.

Love the idea though.

 

[jaelis]

A couple questions:

- Is it important for your adventure for the princess to be revived? If so, then I'd suggest providing a fairly straightforward way to do it, or to keep her from getting killed. It wouldn't seem great to me to force one character to make a big sacrifice to keep the game moving.

If it is not important, then why does the question come up? Is this a roleplaying thing, that the half-orc character has some bond with the princess, and you anticipate the player wanting to pursue that? If so then I'd suggest more of a roleplaying sacrifice, like the character is disfigured or maybe sacrifices an heirloom of emotional but not necessarily practical significance.

- Separately from that, is it important for the story for the princess to be killed? Because if not I'd suggest that anyway giving the players ways to avoid that outcome would be nice. It's good to let the heroes be heroes.

 

[Not a Hobbit]

Thanks for the replies.

My overall plan is for the party to find a place to stash PPP where she will be safe, but after she is well forgotten (around Level 14 or so) the problem will surface again, and they will have to help her regain her throne and defeat the bad cultists. If she dies, it could still be done with modifications, as there is another member of the family who can provide the "king's blood" needed for the god's rebirth. I would rather it play out with someone they've known since the start, though. So it's not vital that she live, but I would prefer it.

There are many ways to prevent the Princess from dying. They will be on a timer, but they would still have an hour before the ritual starts. Once it starts, they can stop it by killing the priestess, or at least by breaking her concentration before she can sacrifice PPP. And as mentioned, there is a cleric in the party who could cast spare the dying or even a healing spell. So this whole scenario is a really last resort thing. I just wanted to be prepared if it came up.

I thought of the Half-Orc barbarian because of his spirit ties to his ancestor. His back story includes protecting children of his tribe. His spirit guide told him to "Protect the girl", and I would think that he would still feel compelled by that to make a sacrifice to bring her back. Your comment about letting heroes be heroes is a good one, but to me a really heroic story is one that goes against the norm. So a Half-Orc barbarian coming in and smashing and killing everything, while impressive, is (again, to me) less a hero than one who has the wisdom to go against his race and class and give of himself for the greater good.

That said, the rest of the party consists partially of a Paladin of Kelemvor and an Elven Life Cleric, so if someone has some good ideas for that, I'm all ears.

Thanks again for the help.

--Scott

 

[Eltab]

The half-orc could sacrifice an eye, and get the special attention of Gruumsh. This opens up Paladin and Cleric multiclass.
Plus, all Orcs stop and listen to what he has to say before they attack his group - he has carved a holy sign in his flesh.

You could also have him give up a healing surge permanently, or submit to being beaten within an inch of his life (mechanically, down to final Death Save) in PPP's place.
If he's the impetuous barge-in type, HE gets caught in the killing ritual instead of her and has to figure out what to do while he is being magically slain.

If the returning god is Bhaal, the spirits whisper to the half-orc that he should call out to the Red Knight (goddess of strategy) and invoke her servant, the Paladin Alavos.* The divine influence messes up the ritual to the extent that the priestess is taking HP for a few turns. The half-orc still has to do something to get PPP out of harm's way.

*Which happens to be my old character, played Murder in Baldur's Gate and tried to prevent Bhaal's return instead of following the plot line at hand

 

[Sunseeker]

I want to take a moment to address the issue of: if a devil shows up and says "It is not yet time!" and the PPP is dead...then what did the adventurers just waste their time on doing? Of course they don't know that it isn't time (you'd think the cultists might), but it seems a whole lot of effort and loss for well, nothing. Do the cultists get something for their trouble? A powerful minion of DeadGod? Infused with great DeadGod powers?

It seems like your story is riding a lot on the players interrupting the ritual, or at least saving the princess.